On the Classification of Full Factors of Type III

Abstract

We introduce a new invariant \mathcal{S}(M) for type III factors M with no almost-periodic weights. We compute this invariant for certain free Araki-Woods factors. We show that Connes' invariant τcannot distinguish all isomorphism classes of free Araki-Woods factors. We show that there exists a continuum of mutually non-isomorphic free Araki-Woods factors, each without almost-periodic weights.